Chapter 5 - The Woman Behind the Voice
I didn't open the door.
"Liam."
His hand stopped.
"What?"
"What is the blue folder?"
He stared at me through the glass.
That answered enough.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Then why did you come here?"
"I told you. Clothes."
"Your clothes aren't in the office."
His face tightened.
I called my father.
Liam saw me.
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
Twenty minutes later, my father arrived.
Only then did I let Liam inside.
He went upstairs.
I went directly to the office.
There were folders in the filing cabinet.
Red.
Black.
White.
No blue.
I searched the desk.
Nothing.
Then I remembered Liam installing a floating shelf when I was eight months pregnant.
He'd insisted I shouldn't help.
I ran my fingers underneath it.
Something shifted.
A thin blue folder had been taped beneath the shelf.
My heart pounded.
Inside were copies of transfers.
Emails.
And a handwritten list of numbers.
At the bottom was Grant Holloway's name.
Then mine.
Then Claire Bennett's.
"What did you find?"
Liam stood in the doorway.
My father was behind him.
I held up the folder.
Liam closed his eyes.
"Give me that."
"No."
"Emily, you don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
He looked at my father.
"Can we have privacy?"
"No," Dad said.
Liam sank into the desk chair.
"It was supposed to be an investment."
"Using my name?"
"Grant said it was temporary."
"Why my signature?"
"I didn't sign it."
"But you knew."
"Eventually."
"When?"
He looked down.
"After it was already done."
"And you stayed quiet."
"I was trying to fix it."
"With more of my money?"
"No."
"Then why was another transfer scheduled?"
His silence infuriated me.
Before I could speak again, the doorbell rang.
Dad went to answer it.
A woman's voice came from the entryway.
"I'm looking for Emily."
I knew the voice.
Not because I'd ever met her.
Because I'd heard it through my phone.
Claire.
She walked into the office and stopped when she saw Liam.
He stood.
"What are you doing here?"
Claire looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
I almost laughed.
"You'll need to narrow that down."
She flinched.
"I didn't know."
"That he was married?"
"I knew he was legally married. He told me you were separated."
"Did you know we had a newborn?"
"He said you were co-parenting."
I looked at Liam.
He said nothing.
Claire's eyes filled.
"He told me you hadn't slept in the same room for almost a year."
I remembered Liam rubbing my back during labor.
I remembered him crying when Hailey was born.
I remembered waking beside him less than four months earlier.
"That's interesting."
Claire looked ashamed.
"I should have verified it."
"Yes."
"I'm not asking you to forgive me."
"Good."
She nodded.
"I came because there's something you need."
She handed me a flash drive.
Liam moved immediately.
"Claire, don't."
That made me take it.
"What is this?"
"Emails. Financial records. Messages from Grant."
Liam's face hardened.
"You stole company files."
"I copied communications involving me."
"You have no idea what you're doing."
Claire looked at him.
"For months you told me Emily was unstable and controlling."
My stomach turned.
"You said she used Hailey to manipulate you. You said you couldn't leave because she'd keep your daughter from you."
I stared at Liam.
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
Claire continued.
"Then last week I saw a message from Emily on his phone."
"What message?"
"A picture of Hailey."
I remembered sending it.
Hailey wearing a little yellow sleeper.
Claire's voice shook.
"The caption said, 'Daddy, come home soon. We miss you.'"
The room blurred.
"That's when you knew?"
"That's when I started wondering."
She looked at Liam.
"So I checked."
"What did you check?"
"Everything he'd told me."
"And?"
"Almost none of it was true."
Liam laughed bitterly.
"This is unbelievable."
Claire turned on him.
"No. What's unbelievable is that you convinced two women they were the problem while you lied to both of them."
My father stepped between them.
"Enough."
Claire looked back at me.
"There's one more thing."
She pulled out her phone.
"Grant and Liam had a meeting Friday."
"What about?"
"I recorded part of it."
Liam's head snapped toward her.
"You what?"
She pressed play.
Grant's voice came first.
"If Emily starts asking questions, we need distance between you and those accounts."
Then Liam.
"She doesn't know anything."
Grant again.
"Make sure it stays that way."
My skin went cold.
Then came Liam's voice.
"If it goes bad, I'll tell them she handled the account. It's in her name anyway."
I looked at my husband.
He looked like a stranger.
"You were going to blame me."
"Emily, I was scared. I didn't mean—"
"You said it."
"I wouldn't have done it."
"But you were willing to imagine it."
Claire stopped the recording.
I handed the flash drive to my father.
"Keep this."
Liam stood.
"Emily, please."
"No."
"You have to let me explain."
"I've spent a week discovering what your explanations are worth."
His phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Grant.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered cautiously.
"Hello?"
A man's voice said my name.
"Emily Carter?"
"Yes."
"This is Daniel Ross with corporate compliance. I need to speak with you regarding an account opened under your identity."
I looked at Liam.
His face went completely white.
May you like
Then Daniel said:
"And Mrs. Carter, there's something else. Your husband isn't the only person in your family whose name appears in these records."
